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a number of 5G deployments in the US for the benefit of enterprise customers. “Just look at pop-up locations and branch offices, where our customers want to take Fixed Wireless access as they look for alternatives to regular broadband connectivity. An example would be crowd management, with the need for constant measurement of foot traffic in the building. Then there’s cashless retail, and the ability to use visuals and cameras to support asset protection in retail locations. Think about functions that have traditionally required intense human engagement, now moving over to robotics and automated guided vehicles with the use of object recognition. The edge is a perfect use case for that. Also, 5G is one of the things that is getting mixed reality off the ground.” From the vendor side, Mikael Bäck is Vice President and Corporate Officer, Group Function Technology with Ericsson. He says the company has been experimenting with 5G use cases since the technology’s early days, in verticals like manufacturing, automotive and transportation: “We’ve recently seen a lot of interest in private 5G networks in manufacturing plants and in remote locations,” he says. “There’s network slicing which gives the end user their own network, instead of building it yourself. Fixed Wireless is another case with the logistics sector early to adopt here. We’re seeing a lot of experimentation and early use cases coming live. We’re at the start of a journey that will be as big as the smartphone revolution in 4G.”
Stephen Spellicy is Vice President of Solutions & Product Marketing, Service Provider & Edge with VMware. He is seeing a lot happening in industrial IoT, with developments like smart meter infrastructure: “This is pushing operators to look for that next network solution, which is 5G,” he believes. “Modernization of 5G infrastructure is key to the customers we're working with today so they can go out and deliver on the promise of these advanced use cases.” Terence McCabe, Chief Technology Officer for Asia Pacific and Japan with Nokia, believes that private 5G might well be key to the mobile market’s future at enterprise level: “Private networks give you a more controlled environment that can be dedicated to specific use cases and can iterate through the standards more quickly,” he claims. “We have a combination of carrier customers and private customers who've rolled out 5G standards. And there will be early adopters for ultra-reliable, low latency use cases as we move forward.” McCabe says the next couple of years will see a whole new range of deployments: “Getting use cases refined and tuned to rollout at a mass scale is a lot easier to do with private networks today than it is to use a general purpose sliced 5G network that's serving a whole range of other use cases,” he points out. “By starting with private networks, you give yourself the opportunity to build new use cases
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